The Boys in the Boat: 97% Audience Score & Clooney's Critic Divide Explained

The success of The Boys In The Boat reminds us of the audience/critic divide on Clooney's most recent films.

Although *The Boys In The Boat* has become a streaming sensation on Amazon Prime Video and boasts an amazing 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics eventually gave the Clooney movie mixed reviews. Based on 158 reviews, *The Boys in the Boat* got a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of merely 57%, following a pattern among movies directed by Clooney that usually sees high audience numbers and mixed critical reaction. Actually, Clooney's second film in a run as director follows 2021's *The Tender Bar*, which got RT ratings of 51% from critics and 70% from viewers.

By far the best audience score in Clooney's directing career is found in The Boys In The Boat with 97%. Often regarded as the best picture Clooney has ever directed, 2005's *Good Night, and Good Luck* boasts an audience score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes coupled with a Certified Fresh critic rating of 93%. Apart from the political thriller *The Ides of March*, starring Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Ryan Gosling, all of Clooney's directing efforts after *Good Night, and Good Luck* have either garnered mixed or terrible reviews. With equally terrible critic (28%) and audience (26%), 2017's *Suburbicon* came lowest among them. Rotten Tomatoes ratings

George Clooney has not helmed a fresh-rated film since 2011.

For Clooney, a director, this is a significant downturn considering the first three of his four films were all well received by critics.

Though its audience score was lower at 73%, *The Ides of March* was the most recent Certified Fresh film Clooney directed with an 83% critic score. Given that Clooney has directed five feature films over the 13-year period, it is somewhat odd and even alarming that he has not made a movie with generally positive reviews since 2011. Clooney did, however, direct two episodes of the Hulu adaptation of *Catch-22* in 2019, which Rotten Tomatoes gave an 84% reviewer rating. For Clooney, a director, this is a significant downturn considering the first three of his four films were all well received by critics.

The Chronicle of The Boys in the Boat

With an amazing Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%, George Clooney's most recent directing effort, *The Boys in the Boat*, Acclaimed Oscar-winning actor best known for his famous major performances as Danny Ocean in the *Ocean's* trilogy (2001 - 2007) and Matt King in *The Descendants* (2011) is also a gifted director. With 2002's *Confessions of a Dangerous Mind* he appeared in with Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, and Sam Rockwell, making his feature directing debut. He has directed nine feature films overall since then, including *The Boys in the Boat*. 2023

After its latest Amazon Prime Video streaming release, *The Boys in the Boat* has shockingly become a streaming smash. Originally showing on Christmas Day 2023, the film made about $55.5 million globally against a 40 million dollar production budget. The Clooney movie traces the dramatic true tale of the 1936 United States Olympic rowing team, which consisted of college students from University of Washington. Based on the 2013 book of the same name, *The Boys in the Boat* boasts an excellent ensemble headed by Joel Edgerton (*The Gift*, *The King*) and Callum Turner (*Masters of the Air*.

Why The Boys In The Boats RT Critics & Audience Scores Are So Apart?

These days, some viewers may find these kinds of classic films full of clichés to boring as they repeated genre clichés instead of inventing them.

Although opinions of *The Boys in the Boat* were obviously split, viewers held the movie in considerably greater respect. Many of the comments from casual viewers questioned the mixed critical reception completely, saying they liked *The Boys in the Boat* for its amazing true narrative, profoundly emotional events, stunning cinematography, and strong acting. From both the causal and the critical sides of the picture, one often learns that it is essentially easy, feel-good, and finally inspirational. These days, some viewers could find these kinds of classic films full of cliches as uninteresting since they repeated genre conventions instead of developing them.

Brad Pitt and George Clooney will be professional "fixers" in a next movie, which might deviate from their Rotten Tomatoes streaks.

It is rather unusual even among the evaluations of *The Boys in the Boat* by the leading critics. Owen Gleiberman of *Variety* notes in his good review, "*The Boys in the Boat* is a gentleman's sports movie, with Clooney working hard to make one 'like they used to.'" He brings it off, even if all has a certain nostalgic quality. Conversely, Clarisse Loughrey of *The Independent* points out, "The film struggles to gather any specific concept of what these athletes should mean to us. Though it ostensibly is about unification, it pays less attention to the people outside of its basic protagonist. One recurring grievance among critics was the characters' inaccessibility.

Though the plot is plenty of excitement, many believed the people lacked relatability. They also argued the movie moved slowly. Furthermore absent from the movie were the kind of special effects expected of such movies.